


Rage, Rage

by lightning027



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Gore, Violence, there's eobarry if you squint but only if you squint a LOT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 23:11:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9629327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightning027/pseuds/lightning027
Summary: Short snippet of a battle between Eobard and Zoom, in an canon divergence where Eo didn't die at the end of season 1.





	

 

 _ **H**_ e chokes, his chest retching, the blood not only pouring out of his abdomen, his left leg, but now spewing out as he coughs, dribbling down his chin, joining the stream his broken nose continues to produce. But still he grits his teeth, even against the pain, the sharp, incessant knives in his side, the chainsaw in his knee, the gasoline coating his throat. He still rises, propping himself on his elbows, his bicep straining as he draws to a kneel, the trickle from below his ribs now a stream, and he _swears_ he can feel the blood as it leaves his body.

There’s a ringing in his ears, and the voices – Caitlin, Cisco, _but not Barry_ – sound like they’re underwater as he **somehow,** through sheer muscle memory and spite, he rises to his feet, ignoring every fiber of his being that tells him not to put weight on his left leg. It feels like he’s on fire, but he’s still standing, he’s still here. He can fight, he _has_ to. And as he stares down Zoom, his soulless black eyes meeting Eobard’s. Even though his Speed Force connection is still so weak, so fractured and destroyed, he knows that through his will alone, red lightning crackles across his vision, and then they’re colliding again.

Eobard knows how to fight, he’s fought for years. He knows how to use the Speed Force, his opponent’s strength, the environment, to his advantage, and he’s smart, _so_ smart. Even though he’s beaten, absolutely wrecked, he still deals blows to Zoom, he still lands a solid punch to the other’s gut, almost slices through his leg with a vibrating hand, oh so close, but Eobard has **never** had luck on his side. The Speed Force gives out on him, his hand cracking against solid muscle, bones snapping, someone screaming – whether it’s him or Zoom, he can’t tell, because already in a blink of even his super-sensitive eye, he’s been punched in the side, the kidney, the face, before Zoom lifts him over his head, Eobard’s vision swimming, and tosses him like a ragdoll across the room, head connecting with the solid wall at the other end, and an explosion goes off behind his eyes.

He lands face-down, his mind clear. The sort of clarity one only achieves in the middle of a fight, the voice in the back of his head quieted by the need for precision and efficiency, lines of thought portrayed in only the most primal of ways, Eobard moving before it seems like he’s even thought it through. And even through the pounding in his head, the white spots in his eyes as he attempts to lift it, like a hot knife jabbed into his skull, his mind is still clear. All unnecessary processing shoved to the side and replaced with a mantra of _survive, survive, fight, fight!_

He can’t even rise to his elbows before the blurry black figure that is Zoom drives his heel into Eobard’s spine, stamping him to the ground, the pain blinding as the white overtakes his vision, but he _fights_ it, fights the urge to pass out, fights because he knows he **has** to.

He growls, snarls, produces noises so guttural and primal they can only be described as a **_roar_** , his face a mask of rage, thick with warrior’s determination.

“ _I will not die_ , I’m going to **fucking kill you!** ” His fingernails, even those on his shattered hand, dig into the floor, positively vibrating with wrath, as Zoom crushes him further into the ground, his spine straining against the pressure. Zoom says something in return, something that Eobard can’t even comprehend, his hearing and sight almost completely demolished.

He screams, he roars, he cracks his forehead on the floor, fingers pressed so far into the concrete his nails crack and splinter. Logically, he knows the outcome of this, he knows what’s going to happen. He knows that Zoom will kill him, steal what little speed he has left, and continue on to the next speedster. But in his heart, in the illogical part of his brain that so rarely takes over, he needs to win. He can’t die, he can’t let Zoom win. He can’t, _can’t, **can’t-**_

“Fuck you! I can’t die, I’m not goi-“ Zoom kicks him again and he shrieks, his head crunching as it hits. He tries to push himself up with his palms, a war cry:  _“I won’t fucking let you I hate you I’m going to win, win, win!”_ and then Zoom’s gripping him by the chest of his suit, lifting him so that his feet don’t even touch the ground, and he laughs, his eyes still black as death, and it’s as if Eobard’s staring into the endless Speed Force that awaits him.

“You’re weak, Eobard. You’re so pathetic, such a failure. Everything you’ve ever done has ended in despair. Why the hell do you think you’ll win _now?”_

It somehow manages to ring in his ears, even though it sounds as if Zoom is speaking a galaxy away. His hands curl over Zoom’s grip, fingers weak and broken, but he forces them to move, forces the muscles to scream and the joints to smoke as he sinks his nails into Zoom’s suit.

“I **_have_** to,” he spits, and he tries to fight, to kick, but Zoom just tosses him away like a piece of garbage, and this time he lands on his back, his abused spine cracking as he lands, and he sees red, black, white. He doesn’t know if that shrieking noise is his ears attempting to work or his cries of pain, every nerve on fire, every animal urge telling him to stop moving, to _give up_ , to _**die.**_

But as he turns his head, sees red and black swirling together in his as his eyes droop, Eobard powerless to stop it, he screams, shrieks.

“ _ **No,**_ fuck you! Fuck you, take _me_! I’m not going to die, I’m not going to let –“ he’s broken by a cough, and a tooth flies out with his blood. “I won’t _let_ you! I won’t fucking let you, I’m going to kick your **ass!”**

And now it sounds like even Eobard is underwater, like he’s disconnected with his body, the pain blurring from knives and red-hot searing to a disjointed ache, and he can’t move his hands, his legs, he can’t feel his face, but he screams still.

 _“I don’t want to die!”_ the tears are hot on his face, he knows, but now they feel lukewarm, like he’s sensing through a fog. “I _can’t_ die – I have to – I-“

He chokes on his blood, his tears, his **regret.** He can feel it slipping away, even as he tries to fight, he scrabbles for a hold, some way to stop this, as he hears more screams, the last thing before his ears give out is a _crack_ and Zoom’s laughter.

And then, the world is crashing down, and this time there’s nothing he can do, no hope that he can somehow miraculously fix it, that his genius can scrounge his way out of this. No, not even _he_ can cheat death.

And, without even a last word, without a happy thought or a single person by his side, Eobard Thawne’s world is _gone._


End file.
